Friday’s Rugby News sees Trying to Win Tri-Nations, Argie Bargie, Europe Wrap, and World Rugby Departure
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TRYING TO WIN TRI-NATIONS
With the Tri-Nations Trophy still a mathematical possibility (a man can dream, right?). Wallaby coach Dave Rennie has rolled out what looks to be his strongest possible team to face the Pumas at BankWest Stadium on Saturday night.
What this means is that there is room once more in the starting side for James O’Connor at flyhalf after missing the last three Tests, which sees Reece Hodge switch to fullback. Allan Alaalatoa returns to the starting tighthead role with Taniela Tupou reverting to the bench.
Also returning this week, albeit via the bench is Lukhan Salakaia-Loto meaning Liam Wright drops out of the 23.
There had been much discussion about the makeup of the team once O’Connor returned and the shifting of Hodge to fullback sees a second playmaker kept on the field, something the centre pairing of Hunter Paisami and Jodran Petaia don’t offer, and should at least make Argentina think a bit more about where the ball may go when they are defending.
Hodge performed well as a makeshift flyhalf, although perhaps didn’t grab the last game against the Pumas as he perhaps should have, which ultimately led to that draw.
Rennie was complimentary, but also slightly critical of Hodge, telling rugby.com.au that, “When you look at Hodgey, I think he’s gone really well at 10, he’s been a little lateral though and that’s not easy when you’ve come from playing everywhere else but 10, but I think he’s made a pretty good fist of it.
He went on to explain the O’Conner typically played a bit more square and this should pressure the Argentinian defence more this week.
My take on the team is this: While there might have been a real temptation to play a very young and inexperienced team in the final Test of the year, the fact is that the Wallabies have only one won Test this campaign, albeit with two draws on top of that. While realistically the Tri-Nations trophy is out of reach it is still important to put a good performance together and come out the other side with a win. A season that ends two wins, two draws and two losses is not terrible in the scheme of things and a solid win would be a good stepping stone into whatever 2021 brings.
WALLABIES (1-15): Scott Sio, Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Allan Alaalatoa, Rob Simmons, Matt Philip, Ned Hanigan, Michael Hooper (c), Harry Wilson, Nic White, James O’Connor, Marika Koroibete, Hunter Paisami, Jordan Petaia, Tom Wright, Reece Hodge
Reserves: Folau Fainga’a, Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Rob Valetini, Jake Gordon, Irae Simone, Tom Banks
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ARGIE BARGIE
After what could only be described as the week from hell, with the well publicised controversy regarding Pablo Matera and his mates, there has been a late twist to the story with the Argentinian Rugby Union doing what can only be described as a very South American thing and reversing it’s decision to strip the captaincy of Matera and suspend him and the others.
While the trio won’t play against the Wallabies it does sort of throw up the question of how and why it came to this? Was it the reported threat of the team to refuse to play if Matera was not reinstated? Was it just that the UAR thought they had over reacted in their first decision? Either way the disruption faced by the Pumas this week certainly won’t have helped their preparation for this match.
Given there was some debate about whether something said 8-9 years ago should be worthy of suspension, there was no disputing the comments were appalling, so it was interesting to see the UAR fold faster than Superman on laundry day, suggesting there was some player pressure involved.
The UAR put out a statement carried by the BBC which said in part, “The preventive measures are unnecessary so we have resolved to lift the suspension of the three players and reinstate the captaincy to Pablo Matera,” which was a pretty quick u-turn from the quick and decisive actions of earlier in the week.
The good news for the Wallabies is that none of the three will play this weekend, with centre Jeronimo de la Fuente to lead the side in what is still a strong line up.
The Pumas will be looking to end their campaign strongly after running into an All-Blacks side keen for revenge last week, and also to try and topple the Wallabies after drawing with them last time out.
PUMAS (1-15): Nahuela Tetaz Chaparro, Julian Montoya, Francisco Gomez Kodela, Matias Alemanno, Marco Kremer, Santiago Grondona, Facundo Isa, Rodrigo Bruni, Felipe Ezcurra, Nicolas Sanchez, Emiliano Boffelli, Jeronimo de la Fuente (c), Matias Orlando, Bautista Delguy, Santiago Carreras
Reserves: Jose Luis Gonzalez, Mayco Vivas, Juan Pablo Zeiss, Lucas Paulos, Francisco Gorrissen, Gonzalo Bertranou, Domingo Miotti, Santiago Chocobares
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EUROPE WRAP
This weekend sees the conclusion of the made for TV Mickey Mouse Cup (I mean the Autumn Nations Cup) in Europe and the one real positive this week is that Fiji will finally get a game after COVID caused their other three games to be postponed. Sadly for them and for us, it is against Georgia in a battle for the last place in the competition. It would have been really good to see them in full flight against one of the Tier One Nations but you take what you can I suppose at this point.
The Fijians aren’t messing about in their one opportunity either, naming a full strength team to face what has been a very disappointing Georgian outfit who were looking to stake claims to enter an enlarged Six Nations in the future.
Other games this weekend see Ireland and Scotland, Wales and Italy and the game for all the marbles between France and England.
The final itself shapes to be a one sided affair (famous last words!) with a large part of the the French squad unavailable due to hitting the limit set down by the clubs in terms of the number of games played. So what this means is that a near full strength England is facing a French team that has had to promote several of it’s previous U20 teams to face the Poms. With support like this from former players you have to wonder….
Elsewhere the English Premiership continues with Exeter already setting the pace after two games with plus 67 for and against. Surely tougher games will come but they are the defending champions and look hard to stop. The face Leicester this weekend, and in other games, Wasps take on second placed Newcastle. Worcester face Bath, Bristol host Northampton, London Irish play Sale and Gloucester will battle Harlequins.
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WORLD RUGBY DEPARTURE
In a blow to World Rugby, the CEO, Australian Brett Gosper has quit to take up a role with the NFL. Gosper has been instrumental in the last two Rugby World Cups, turning the events into showpieces on the global sporting calendar, not to mention a nice little earner for the host nation to boot.
Gosper’s new role will be to try and further increase the NFL’s footrprint into Europe. The NFL have (until this year and COVID) played at least one game a year in London and had signed a ten year contract to play two games a year with Engligh Premier League side Tottenham.
There has been ongoing talk for a number of years about a team relocating to the UK permanently, although it has never gone beyond the scuttlebutt phase.
Blinkered rugby fans may laugh but any significant increase in NFL coverage and participation could be detrimental to rugby in the long term. We have already seen in Australia some flirting with NRL players trying to transition and Englishman Christian Wade did the same as well. It isn’t the late age transition that is or should be of concern here as most of those attmepts are little more than a novelty and fail to appreciate the complexity of the NFL.
What will be the worry is the battle for hearts and minds of fans. With the NFL close to it’s maximum fan base in the US it is hungry for revenue and eyeballs elsewhere. If this happens, that is when the trickle down will start to occur and kids will eventually look to it as a viable alternative in the playing side of things.
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="127793 https://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/?p=127793">47 Comments
If the UAR is on the ball they will sack them after this match as planned last week
Now THAT would be South American style treachery eh?
I think Steven Fry said it best:
“Its time to pull the cane out of the cupboard and give them a bloody good thrashing”
You’d hope so mate
I thought that quote was attributed to Peter Roebuck.
Thanks Ben. I feel a bit for Lolesio and I still think if he’d been brought on against the Argies in the last game things would be different now and the cup would be with the Wallabies. Let’s hope they finish the season on the high they deserve after such a shit year. I like the idea of Hopdge at 15 and I think it’ll probably prove to be his best position.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Argies use all this disruption to get themselves up for the last game, or if it distracts them so much they fall badly. I’m thinking more likely the latter.
He definitely could have added some extra spice to close out the game.
Agree.Nothing particularly spicy either about the bench this game either.If the Argies hold I cant see much thats gonna tip the equation our way bar a Thor injection
This year was never going to be the year for the Wallabies, we’ve beaten and drawn a game with NZ, so for me that’s a pass mark. We’ve also seen a large number of new players which Lolesio is one of. Some have excelled, some have been OK and some have been below expectation, the same goes for some older heads, but it’s important to remember that players develop differently and for Lolesio, he will in time get his opportunity. Rennie is still testing the waters and I feel that next year will only get better.
Yeah I agree it was always going to be a learning year and better results in some ways than expected. Bit gutted with the draw against the Argies but at least it wasn’t a loss
the biggest surprise for me were the players left out and the players selected – some of whom did well and some a bit under expectations.
Samu and Isi not even featuring, Banks I think its fair say, he didnt really take bull by the horns and Simmons and Ned featuring as first picks or close.
Philip has been really good, as has the exorcet missile at 12 for his first season. Gunu was so threatening – what happened ? Wright on other hand looks like a keeper.
It really does seem that test rugby renders those that need time and space rather bloody impotent. It must be incredibly fast out there.
I think Lachlan Swinton is the answer to one of your gaps, or perhaps McMahon if he comes back – not a lump but hits bigger than most lumps.
Agree that someone like Rory Arnold would be a great partner for Philipps and I wish we had him back.
I’m not sure we are missing that much x-factor, just need Paisami and (especially) Petara to settle into their game.
Pretty well agree. But I don’t know that X factor’s the correct term. It’s just playmaking. You could argue we have some individual x factor in Petaia, Wright, Daugunu. All three of them can skin players one on one. JOC still has it, too.
But what we don’t have is that guiding, directing influence. Which was the difference between having Larkham at 10 or having Horan at 10, with guys like Pat Howard, Dan Herbert and Jason Little in the centres (or Horan, with Larkham at 10). The centres were far from poor. they just weren’t being as well used with a centre at 10 as they were when they had someone with a ranging passing game there.
Currently, if we have a real opportunity to attack out wide, we don’t have a 10 who’s likely to get it there quickly. If we have a chance to attack a singular point in the defensive line with multiple attackers, I’m not confident that Hodge would’ve picked the right runner consistently. Not as consistently as Harrison, or Lolesio, who’ve spent far more time – and far more time recently in that role.
In hindsight we should have stuck with Hodge, proper 10man rugby might have worked better.
I can see the idea of letting Paisami and Petaia play and establish their partnership outside an experienced 10 so I don’t hate the call but… I feel sorry for Lolesio too.
At some point we need to see if he can really hack it at test level, he does too, and in what’s basically a dead rubber but against a side that we’ve seen are ferocious in defence, I’d have said it would be a great time to put him in.
That said, I’m looking at this team sheet and while I have a couple of “meh, I’d like that player instead” reactions, there are only a couple and I have those with just about every team list, even World Cup winning teams, so I’m really not going to criticise Rennie too harshly.
I think that getting the side playing well and consistently is the aim at the moment so that when guys like Lolesio and Harrison are introduced the transition is easier for them. We are at the beginning of a rebuild and foundations, bricks and mortar are what’s required first. So I can wait for the younger guys and trust that they will be brought in when they are ready, really ready and that they will be coming in to a side without all the baggage from the Cheika era.
All very good points LK. It would certainly make it an easier transition for the young 10’s if the backline around them is settled and performing.
I agree with that. It’s why I don’t hate the call.
I still feel sorry for Lolesio though. Being behind JOC, sure. Situationally behind Hodge, harder, but that all new midfield really didn’t fire. There are times he’s been on the pine he could have had more, any if we’re being brutal, minutes for me – inside Toomua or JOC way back when – and he’d be that bit further along in his development.
Many thanks Ben.
I have given up on trying to understand damn near anything from South America. So I’m not surprised to be surprised by their shenanigans.
Fiji to put a cricket score on the Romanians, Ireland to beat the Scots and Wales to belt Italy. And I’m putting a redback on the French to beat the English. It would be so Gallic.
Lastly, like KARL I’m sorry for Lolly not getting the Wobbly no10. This would be a perfect game or him to own it. That said, and I didn’t ever think I would ever say this… but… I’m looking forward to seeing JOC play for the Wobblies at 10. Bloody Hell. I need a drink now. Good thing it’s after 9am.
The Georgians are going to be devastated to find out they’ve been punted from this weekend’s game against the Fijians!
Well played. It’s a bit like crossing Aussie/Kiwi or Canadian/American yeh?
They all look the same
Just don’t ever cross a Korean for Japanese.
I think South Park did an episode on that.
And it was gold.
“Everyone’s a rittle sneaky sometimes…..like Pearl Harbour!”
Nutta to survive 10 seconds if he ever goes to Georgia :)
Indeed! Or Bucharest. Nah, they’d forgive a rugby player, wherever he’s from.
I remember reading a newspaper opinion piece years ago, perhaps at a time when Rugby was under pressure from some controversy, where the author concluded to the effect of “at least at Rugby games we don’t need to segregate the fans of each team for fear of violence like soccer/football”.
I’ve often said that: all our violence is on the pitch.
Especially one who so loves the scrum. :-)
If we can’t beat that Pumas side it might be time to give up and take up tiddlywinks.
Crashed back to Earth by their thrashing last week, animosity within the squad over the response to Matera’s tweets, without their two best forwards in Matera and Petti, and playing a tight style of rugby that hasn’t unleashed their still-extremely dangerous backs – they’ve scored one try in three games and it was a lucky chip and chase.
No excuses this week for the Wallabies – time to step up.
Never kick a wounded bull. You just never know how it will respond…
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I feel that I am getting old. In my playing days, forwards made more sense with their mouthguards in, and backs were the pristine haired wordsmiths.
Watching the Wallabies interviews this week, both locks were intelligent and articulate, while the centres were monosyllabic.
I’m fine with the whole team sounding monosyllabic, mouthgaurds in or out, haircuts can be Top gun, Richard Simmons or Peter Sterling – lets just put it together and win with some style on the field. Australian rugby fans need and dare I say deserve a thumping Aussie win.
I didn’t think we were getting that desperate OLSL. That reads like a post in the Chieka era. Even before this game, I think Dave Rennie has done a fair job of improving the Wallabies play (although consistency is still our Achilles Heel).
Having said that, it would be a big step backwards to lose this weekend, but another step forward if we win, and two steps if we win in a convincing fashion.
Of course we are desperate. We need to be desperate every time we play. Maybe that’s the problem. We need to be scathing when we lose. Look at NZ when the ABs lose. Maybe its not our style. Maybe we accept mediocraty just a little too easily. Is it any surprise that kiwi, saffa and English fans take no prisioners when they lose. Both draws to me were loses. We should have won both matches. It has to stop. Screw linear progression. There will always be “building” as an excuse. Its a cop out. The only reason we didnt somehow get those 2 winds was that we just didnt want it deep down in the guts. If people really really fear losing or drawing the get the job done.
I think you might overstate our importance in the whole thing. Players need to be personally responsible for their efforts individually and collectively but this needs to be driven by an in-built commitment to improvement and quality preparation and performance not fear that some keyboard warrior is going to type some nasty words about you and put them on the internet. I personally hope none of the players waste any of their time reading my comments. Although I am probably a hypocrite for saying it, I would prefer to be seen as a supporter rather than a fan(atic)
“mid 16th century (as an adjective): from French fanatique or Latin fanaticus ‘of a temple, inspired by a god’, from fanum ‘temple’. The adjective originally described behaviour that might result from possession by a god or demon, hence the earliest sense of the noun ‘a religious maniac’ (mid 17th century).”
“Rennie has done a fair job of improving the Wallabies play (although consistency is still our Achilles Heel).”
I think there are still problems getting away from the RUPA stipulation that (as well as match-day fees and win bonuses) literal laurels be provided for the Wallaby players to rest on after a win.
Bit harsh on our centres there, Ben. I’d point out that Paisami had a much, much better distribution and creative game at 12 last game out than Hodge had at 10… Even threw a perfect 25m pass left to right the other week.
It’s nice to have a coach who speaks as though we can understand rugby concepts like running laterally
What is that, relative to the sideline, exactly? Is that when Phipps runs 10 metres laterally to get close enough to Foley to be able to to pass it to him?
Running a Kurtley?!
Well those selections are particularly insipid it feels. Yes there’s injuries etc. but Rennie has failed to properly introduce Lolo and/or Harrison, & has persevered with Hodge, Petaia and Marike when all probably deserved a rest. There’s no real impact in the starting 15.
I’ve got to say I don’t under the UAR decision. I know the team was threatening to go on strike, but the right decision is to go to them quietly and settle things down quietly, not this crazy U-turn.
Then, over the summer, you have your inquiry. You announce that it was a long time ago, they have grown as players and people. They have shown true remorse for their actions. The short suspension for the investigation was necessary but there will be no further punishment. Depending on the mood in the camp you reappoint Matera as captain or not – personally I wouldn’t but I’m not a male Argentinian test rugby player.
Net effect? They still miss this game, same as now. But the UAR doesn’t look like it’s totally incompetent, weak and borderline condoning racism. But hey, maybe the Pumas are all a bunch of racists and Matera just posted to 4Chan and Parler instead.
If you guys can watch France England I recommend doing so and watching out for Killian Geraci in 4. He is probably too young and green to make much of a dent on probably the world’s best second-row but I am really looking forward to seeing how he shapes up against them.
If you saw the last U20 RWC, he was dominant, he played like a men among boys and a big part of France’s win, I don’t know how many metres I saw him make in tight – a bit like Harry Wilson in fact. But then again also like Campbell Magnay before them! So I am looking forward to seeing how he goes :)